The removal of the funding allocated to deputies and senators has been announced by the Government, which has decided to put an end to a practice that has no historical precedent. No legal text defines or regulates it.
It is now up to the new assembly to confirm this decision by passing the law. With 75% new members, there is good hope that old practices will be forgotten.
The public life moralization project plans to eliminate the parliamentary reserve in favor of a “fund for territorial action and projects of general interest.”
Until now, parliamentarians were annually provided with funding aimed at supporting “local investment decisions made by local authorities and activities conducted by associations.”
Thus, a parliamentarian could have access to grants for their constituency amounting to 130,000 euros. In 2016, the parliamentary reserve amounted to 81.86 million euros, out of the 90 million approved in the Finance Law.
In a report on the situation of parliamentarians published in 2014, this evaluation body notably criticized the discretionary nature of the parliamentary reserve.
